The 'weed or plant' question that the Forum is regularly asked is usually really 'should I let it live or kill it?' as if there is an objective and definitive answer. In most cases - apart from the Schedule 9 species - it's just not that simple.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I think I may not be quite making my point clear - you all seem to think I'm arguing that we shouldn't grow native plants but I'm saying the opposite - we should. But we shouldn't think that there's a hierarchy of good and bad native plants.
We should all grow some stinging nettles to help moths and butterflies. We should stop obsessing about killing clover and dandelions in the lawn, or herb robert in garden walls and paths. If we are to help bees, moths and butterflies, it's not only the 'pretty' spring wildflowers that we need to keep - brambles, ivy and celandine are vital too. And cultivated forms of pulmonaria and winter flowering honeysuckle are also (not instead) good things to grow to help bees and other pollen hungry insects to survive winters.
We should all try to grow native bluebells and primroses (please) but be aware they spread as actively as those stinging nettles once they get established.
There are a few 'bad' plants around in the UK. They aren't native species. Not even the ugly native species. They are ones someone paid a lot of money for once. Just because something didn't cost any money, doesn't make it worthless.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
It's interesting how different plants affect the taste of honey. A local bee keeper always harvests his honey before Himalayan Balsam comes into flower as he says it gives his honey a slightly bitter taste. I grow a variety of plants both native and non. I try to have something in flower every month of the year. I keep chemicals to a minimum. I just do what I can without being obsessive about it.
It's interesting how different plants affect the taste of honey. A local bee keeper always harvests his honey before Himalayan Balsam comes into flower as he says it gives his honey a slightly bitter taste. I grow a variety of plants both native and non. I try to have something in flower every month of the year. I keep chemicals to a minimum. I just do what I can without being obsessive about it.
This is true, we went to a honey farm a couple of years ago and I was surprised at how different honey from different plants tastes. I thought honey was just honey!
No problem sharing our space with weeds here - daisies, buttercups of both kinds, celandine, arum italicum, nettles, geranium nodosum and Herb Robert, mallows, thistles, bittercress, groundsel and rampant mint and so on. Far too many to obsess about in the grass and boundary hedges but I will be ruthless in the veggie plot which, we are discovering, has deep-rooted bindweed and other persistent plants I don't want competing with the edibles.
No pesticides and aiming to have something in flower every month but I just may resort to weedkiller for the potager. I'm trying to start colonies of wild bluebell and garlic as well as 3 cornered leeks and native primroses. We'll see.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I can take or leave honey, but I read somewhere that honey from London bees is pretty good because of the greater diversity of plants,as opposed to the monoculture in the countryside e.g. rape
I think some people are not sure what to grow for wild life, it good to have flowers they feed on but you have to have the plants they lay eggs on, like Buddlias, good for feed, useless for anything else, you need a patch of nettles for breeding.
We are lucky that we are just a plot in the corner of a field so have fields all around with a deep break on all sides. Not lucky when the thistles seed and blow in, and the brambles travel for miles and root themselves in the borders😀
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Posts
The 'weed or plant' question that the Forum is regularly asked is usually really 'should I let it live or kill it?' as if there is an objective and definitive answer. In most cases - apart from the Schedule 9 species - it's just not that simple.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/discover/in-your-garden/article/93
We should all grow some stinging nettles to help moths and butterflies. We should stop obsessing about killing clover and dandelions in the lawn, or herb robert in garden walls and paths. If we are to help bees, moths and butterflies, it's not only the 'pretty' spring wildflowers that we need to keep - brambles, ivy and celandine are vital too. And cultivated forms of pulmonaria and winter flowering honeysuckle are also (not instead) good things to grow to help bees and other pollen hungry insects to survive winters.
We should all try to grow native bluebells and primroses (please) but be aware they spread as actively as those stinging nettles once they get established.
There are a few 'bad' plants around in the UK. They aren't native species. Not even the ugly native species. They are ones someone paid a lot of money for once. Just because something didn't cost any money, doesn't make it worthless.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
No pesticides and aiming to have something in flower every month but I just may resort to weedkiller for the potager. I'm trying to start colonies of wild bluebell and garlic as well as 3 cornered leeks and native primroses. We'll see.
We are lucky that we are just a plot in the corner of a field so have fields all around with a deep break on all sides.
Not lucky when the thistles seed and blow in, and the brambles travel for miles and root themselves in the borders😀